“Yes, April. You know it’s for the best. As long as I can’t control myself, there’s a danger someone is going to realize I’m the one causing all of the strange happenings.” The one who woke him chuckled softly and Ryuu stirred in his lair. “One of these days, someone is going to find one of the bodies before it decides to die again.”

“They do not die a second time, Jasmine. They merely walk the earth as though they were alive again. None of them have spoken or acted as though they have a mind of their own.” Ryuu fought the urge to growl at the male who spoke. What was a male doing so close to his lair?

“You’re forgetting the one that followed me around saying, me eat your brain, Drake.”

“You don’t think that one came back with a sense of zombie humor?” April asked.

Ryuu smiled at the fact that even though he was several feet below the surface, and he could not see those who disturbed his rest, that he could still differentiate between the two females who woke him.

“I doubt it, especially since he tried to attack me.”

“Then apparently, he didn’t realize that you were the one who brought him back to life so he could try to eat your brains.”

“I really don’t think he cared. Anyway, I appreciate you two bringing me here and leaving me alone. The last thing I want to do is endanger anyone else.”

“We will not leave you unprotected.”

“I don’t need protection, Drake. I need alone time.”

“We will not leave you without leaving three of my best men to protect you. If you wish to stay here, then you will stay here with them. I have already informed them to follow you discreetly. You will not even know they are there.”

This Drake person was fast becoming someone Ryuu could respect. One should never leave females to fend for themselves in strange places.

“If that’s the only way you’ll leave me here, then I guess I don’t have any choice but to accept your generous offer.”

Ryuu heard the strain in the woman’s voice. She did not want this Drake’s help, but she would accept it graciously in exchange for her right to remain here.

For some reason, Ryuu liked the idea of her staying close. Something within him stirred at the sound of her voice and he wished to rise to find out what it was about the woman that caused such a reaction in him.

He heard heavy footsteps vibrate the earth overhead as one of them walked away. He didn’t think it could be one of the females, but it had been a century or more since he had risen. It had also been that long since anyone dared to visit his home. Many things could have changed since then.

After a few minutes, the ground above grew quiet. Ryuu relaxed, allowing himself to slip back into a deep sleep, once more.

The sound of crying woke him. Sitting up, he frowned. How much time had passed since the last time he’d awakened? He moved through his lair, searching for an intruder. Was this some sort of trap designed to get him to leave the safety of his cave?

Placing a hand to his chest, Ryuu looked up toward the woman who sobbed so heavily. What had happened to her? It sounded as though her heart had broken—either that, or she was terrified.

Her heart-wrenching sobs touched him in a way that nothing else ever had. Curious, Ryuu chose to leave his self-imposed prison to investigate. If he exited through one of the other openings, he could approach her undetected. The last thing he wanted to do was reveal the main entrance to his lair—especially if this was a trap.

Drawing on his dragon’s magic, Ryuu opened the entrance a mile from the woman and walked out into the blinding sunshine. The light was bright, almost too bright for a dragon who hadn’t seen the sun in nearly one-hundred years.

He approached from the north and downwind. Who knew what kind of trap awaited him? It was best to keep alert and use the element of surprise.

The sobs grew louder as he approached. Finally, exiting the trees in front of her, he stopped, totally rapt. The most gorgeous woman he had ever seen sat on the large boulder that covered the entrance to his lair.

Her hair, as black and shiny as the purest obsidian, tumbled to her waist. Beautiful eyes, nearly the same dark, green of the rarest jade, filled with tears when she looked up and met his gaze.

“Go ahead, you nasty goon,” she said on another sob. “Mash my head in and eat my brains. I hope you choke on them.”

The woman, who he now realized could very well be the most beautiful in the world, swiped her arm across her nose in a very unladylike way that almost made him smile. “Put me out of my misery. I’m tired of running. Just get it over with already.”

It’s one thing when Jasmine manifests dead things. It’s something else when they start to walk and talk.

Jasmine is a witch who needs her mate, as evidenced by the fact that she can bring things back to life—whether she wants to, or not. When corpses begin to come back to life while she’s around, things get interesting, not to mention messy. When she awakens a male who keeps insisting he loves her, Jasmine runs. What sane person wouldn’t?

When a very beautiful and talented witch wakes Ryuu from his deep slumber, he feels a connection immediately. When he pursues her, she runs. It’s almost enough to give him a complex until he realizes the poor girl thinks she reanimated him from dead tissue. Now, all he needs to do is convince her that she’s his mate and that he’s the Spirit Dragon, not a zombie.